Rashad
Evans will end his retirement to compete on Eagle Fighting
Championship’s United States debut on Jan. 28.
Yahoo
Sports first reported Evans return. The former UFC champion is
expected to compete at 205 pounds against an as yet to be announced
opponent. “Suga” retired following a 53-second knockout loss to
Anthony
Smith at UFC 225 on June 9, 2018 – his fifth consecutive defeat
within the Las Vegas-based promotion. The 42-year-old New York
native owns a 19-8-1 career mark that includes victories over the
likes of Chuck
Liddell, Forrest
Griffin, Quinton
Jackson, Michael
Bisping, Stephan
Bonnar, Tito Ortiz,
Phil
Davis, Chael Sonnen
and Dan
Henderson.
Eagle FC is the MMA promotion owned by retired former UFC
lightweight champion Khabib
Nurmagomedov. The event, entitled Eagle FC 44, is expected to
be headlined by a heavyweight duel between Antonio
Silva and Tyrone
Spong and will be held in Miami. ESPN was first
to report the main event matchup.
A former EliteXC champion, “Bigfoot” Silva has compiled a 19-13
record while competing for organizations such as the UFC and
Strikeforce. The 42-year-old Brazilian is winless in his last six
MMA appearances. In addition, Silva has suffered KO defeats to
Rico
Verhoeven in kickboxing and to Gabriel
Gonzaga in Bare Knuckle FC.
Spong, meanwhile, has not competed in MMA since going 2-0 under the
World Series of Fighting banner from 2012 to 2013. The 36-year-old
Suriname native is an accomplished combat sports athlete who won
multiple titles in kickboxing and is currently the WBC Latino
heavyweight champion and WBO Latino heavyweight champion in
boxing.